Photochemical smog hits Tokyo

What's that?

Should we all be wearing hats and sun shades?

 

It's just a bit of mist.

So said a co-worker once to me with a totally straight face as we looked out across a brown Tokyo sky from our 9th floor office after I mentioned that we breath this crap in every day.

So what level constitutes the issuance of a smog warning in this ever so slightly misty ol' city? That would be asking too much of a Kyodo report, wouldn't it.

 

During my stay in Tokyo, that became the running joke with the folks at work.

My how times have changed! Wasn't it just last year that some old folks took air quality samples at major intersections and found them to be containing 12 times the alloted amount of dioxins under the law. When they took their case to court, well I bet you can guess what happened...

Bottom line, the air is worse in Tokyo than it is in LA. Mexico city ain't far off... Enjoy!

 

I doubt that the air is worse in Tokyo than LA.

I am sure that Tokyo has pretty bad days when there is no winds or light easterlies, but Tokyo gets the benefit of a good airflow that clears the air the moment a decent breeze from the prevailing west starts up - and it sends all Japans acid rain off to fall over Guam and the Pacific.

I'm not saying that the air here is clean, and I have never been to LA, but the air problems there are based on different factors;
- LA is three times bigger than Tokyo
- Most people commute in big low mpg cars, rather than electric trains
- LA has mountains to the East, which tend to trap emissions emitted over LA that would otherwise be blown east away from LA.

Mexico city gets hella air pollution because it is large, too many cars (diesel cars in particular), and is in a sheltered basin that prevents proper airflow.

Santiago in Chile is the worst, it is sandwiched between mountains to the East and West that means the smog never escapes - it has some of the worst air in the world resulting from emissions that can build up and stay over the city for months without escaping.

I'm not saying that Tokyo is good - but you can see Mt Fuji during winter, which is 200km away and it is not as bad overall as you are making it out. That is not because it is a clean city per se - it is just lucky to be where it is geographically.

That said, nobody likes to have a smog warning for even one day in the year. Ishihara's plans to prohibit diesel trucks from Tokyo are a move in the right direction, as are government subsidies of Minicars and Low Emission Vehicles.

Another encouraging development is the Heat Island response policies of many local governments, including now Chiyoda and Shibuya Wards in Tokyo. Not aimed at air pollution, but rather the heat bubble over Tokyo's cement island, it requires all buildings over a certain surface area to cover their rooftop areas with at least 25, or 50 (depending on scale)% greenery. The idea is that having greenery over cement surfaces prevents the buildings themselves becoming hot, as well as the reflection of heat. After 50 years, someone has finally figured out how people in equally hot cities like Sydney and Singapore tolerate the heat - by having greenery as shade. Tokyo still has a long way to go, but it is encouraging to see that some people are finally starting to get the message.

Final note, after sticking up for Tokyo just now, I have gotta say, I jog at night around Shimo Kitazawa, Ebisu, and Shibuya, and I avoid main roads, because the exhaust fumes from cars are too much. The sooner we get lower emitting cars and more trees, the better.

Peace

 

announced this on the front page of the government's website. Took me a while, but here is the link:
http://www.kankyo.metro.tokyo.jp/ox/bunpu/smog.htm

 

Trust me, LA's cleaned up a lot. That said, it still has June Gloom which sucks...

As for Fuji-san, yeah I know you can see it fine in the mornings in winter. The thing is so huge it's hillarious that it's not visible more often.

That said, when you take a look at the sky over any sigificant part of the city, notice the brownish haze. Around 5 o'clock the whole thing turns absurd shades of pink and violet, some of the most unnatural color effects you're ever likely to see in your lifetime. That's pollution my friend--lot's and lots of it in unregulated amounts.

I applaud Ishihara for talking about the trucks and the roofs. The roof part makes sense and might be doable. Lord knows the construction companies would love to get some of that action... But the trucks! You know as well as I do that those guys are never going away. They stay on idle all night, cranking the aircon in the summer time (when you actually have that season :-), jacking up the heater in the winter, and every morning like clockwork they chuck their styrofoam bento boxes on the sidewalk, take a wizz in the roadside bushes and head off for another day of 18-hour driving. And the trucks aren't even that big (due to the size of most streets) and so the pollution affect is that much more dramatic!

No guy! Japan, and Tokyo in particular need some seriousl techno-overhaul to even make a dent in the smog. And don't get me started about the illegal dumping of waste taking place willy-nilly in the countryside with reckless abandon.

7 years in J-land pal. I biked for a while their too--in the city and in the countryside! Believe you me, my lungs are feeling the difference since moving out, for the better!

_______

Last annecdote for ya. I go back home and meet up with my bro to do some go-karting at an indoor facility nearby. We start zooming around. 15 minutes in, his times start levelling off whereas mine just keep getting lower and lower. At the end of the half hour, we look at the time sheets and he can't figure it out. He exclaims: "What the heck happened out there? How in the world can you go on driving when the CO2 fumes start picking up?" I smile and I say: "That's the Tokyo effect babe! Live there a while and your body can function on half the O2..." (That also explains why there are so many English teachers out there... But I digress:-)

Have a lovely weekend and stay off the main roads...

Peace back at ya!

 

Ahh, Tokyo in summertime. How lovely.

 

How Japan burns most of its trash, and how Tokyo didn't even begin to monitor dioxin and other pollutants that those incinators put out until recently

 

Is news???

Is a Kodak moment?
(or Fuji film moment?)

Will it "develop" into anything further?

Is it "picturesque"?

How does one tell the difference between Photochemical smog and Petrochemical smog?

 

The Japanese love going on about LA and its smog.A while ago,on one of this summer's rare sunny days,I took a ride to the top of Meiji University's very tall,perched on a hill main campus with my daughter.When she asked me where is Mt.Fuji? I proceeded to tell her that the smog was blocking the view,only to be rudely interuppted by a Japanese guy who proclaimed that it wasn't smog but in fact was only innocent clouds that were preventing us from seeing the mountain!!Strange to say,the sky was a brilliant blue that day.